Some random thoughts on Legos.
Today was the birthday of two of the kids who I think of like brothers. (They’re twins) Naturally, I got them a birthday present. I initially couldn’t think of what to get them, because I didn’t want to get anything too big, because I didn’t want it to overshadow anything that their family gave them, and I also didn’t have much money. I remembered that they loved LEGOs. I really loved Legos when I was younger, and I guess if they asked me, I would play with them or help them build something. I had (what I thought was) a lot of them, being two large Rubbermaid under-bed storage boxes, plus a shoebox or two of either special models, or just stuff that I used frequently and didn’t want to drag out the large box for, or just stuff that wouldn’t fit. These kids have me beat by a long shot. They could probably build a scale model of anything in the world, and have shown me some pretty impressive things that they’ve built.
I had some extra time in town before band practice, so I swung into the Target to go to the LEGO isle. Upon reaching it, I discovered two things that were different from my younger days playing with them.
One: LEGOs are expensive! When I was little, (maybe 5) I remember how excited I was because my mom was buying me a lego roadster car. I think it cost maybe $2 or $3 dollars. The majority of the sets I remember were about $5-$30 maybe $50-60 for something really awesome. Most of the sets I found in the store this time were $15+, mostly $20 up to about $80. That leads to the second point,
Two: Legos are way cooler than they were when I was little. They had your basic sets, which were a bucket or box of lots of different multi-colored pieces, and a book that told you how to make lots of different things, like pickup trucks and airplanes and stuff like that. It was all easy to put together, and pretty generic and basic. In the more expensive sets they had fairly generic Pirate, Castle, and Town sets. Later they introduced an underwater themed submarine set and a wild west set. It was still all pretty generic. Now it seems that one of the big things with legos is Licensed Products, like the Star Wars 4ft-long Star Destroyer set with like 3,104 pieces, or the Harry Potter Hogwarts Super-Magical Uber-Castle, or The Indiana Jones Temple of Horrific-Evil-Too-Great-To-Put-In-Child’s-playset or whatever. Looking at the website, I see that they have also licensed stuff from Batman, SpeedRacer, Ferrarri, and even Sponge-Bob. Moving into more generic stuff, the have way advanced Castle, City, Aqua-Raider, even Mars Mission. This stuff is way beyond what it was like when I was little. One of their other brothers has this Dwarven Mining Complex set, complete with Mini-Dwarf figures, Trolls, Goblins, and silver minerals that suspiciously remind me of Mithril. (Can anyone say Lord of the Rings, Mine of Moria?) Another thing I noticed is specialty pieces. In old-school legos, you pretty much built everything yourself. Just about the only thing that wasn’t some sort of brick were the accessories that the figurines held. Now, they have lots of these pieces that pretty much simplify construction into several larger pieces. Some sets look like little play-mobil sets.
It saddens me a bit, because building and creativity and customization were the main things lego had going for it. If you didn’t like something, you could make it different, if you lost a piece, you could probably leave it out. WIth all of this though, I think it really takes a lot away from the lego system, and just turning them into more ordinary models.
Don’t get me wrong, I still like legos, and will probably purchase them for several more “little-brother” birthdays. I just miss “the old days”. I ended up getting them these sets from the Lego Racer series. One is a tuner-ish car, the other is a roadster of sorts. They look really cool and actually look a little bit like real cars. I guess though, if they can make a scale model of the Statue of Liberty, they can make cars. They were really excited to unwrap them, and I’m glad I gave them something that they really liked.
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